NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Peers have had their say on the religious politics of Ireland, apropos to the second reading of the Maynooth College Bill; on which they bestowed three nights. The debaters were of three classes,— the Ministerialists or Peel Conservatives, who advocated the bill; the Liberals, who joined in extending to it a cordial support; and the Old Tories who opposed it with vehement emotion. The last were led by the Earl of Roden, with a speech of the documentary kind, abounding in extracts, as evidence against the contract se- curing the tagainst the morals, social and political, of the Irish Catholics, lay and clerical—against the consistency and ef- ficiency of Ministers, and so forth. He proposed inquiry into the doctrines taught at ilaynooth ; not meaning, however, really to elicit information, but merely in that way to defeat the bill. The Earl of Winchilsea threw a strong flood of zealotry into the dis- cussion. The less intemperate opponents were two of the Bishops —those of London and Exeter. The Bishop of London's speech was of a reasonable and reasoning character, the Prelate aiming chiefly at making out that the management of Maynooth is bad ; but it was remarkable for closing with the avowal, that Dr. Blomfield himself did not know, if this policy were rejected, what to suggest instead for governing the Irish Catholics. The Bishop of Exeter, though somewhat more heated in his denunciations of Maynooth, coupled his opposition with the remarkable proposal, that Government should establish in Ireland three or four schools, an- nexed if they like to the new Academical Colleges, for the training of Roman Catholic priests. It will be perceived what a large de- duction from the force of the chief Episcopal opposition to the measure is implied in this proposal, which concedes its principle and in Dr. Blomfield's confession, which admits that he is dis- qualified as an opponents because he is avowedly not master of the whole subject. The most forcible supporters of the bill were also chiefs of the Church—the Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishop of St. David's. Dr. Whately started with the remark, that the bad management of Maynooth had never occurred to him as a reason against improvement ; and with singular close- ness and felicity he successively took up. and demolished several of the chief dogmatical arguments against the bill and its en- couragenaent of Popery in Ireland ; showing that the measure is not a Protestant encouragement of Popery, but that it simply accords to the Roman Catholic section of the na- tion their share in the advantages of the state, towards whose support they contribute equally with Protestants. Dr. Thirl- wall's speech, also on the morals of the subject, was some- what ponderous, but massive and powerful, and distinguishea, like the Archbishop's by its frank and generous boldness. The Peel Conservatives also did themselves credit by their Liberal superiority to prejudice ; the Liberal Peers, by their really liberal superiority to faction in acknowledging the merits of the Ministerial measure. Some discrepancy has been dis- covered between the argument with which the Duke of Wel- lington clinched his speech and Sir Robert Peel's clinching re- mark. Sir Robert pointed to the chances of warlike aggression from abroad—the little black cloud in the West, and the like—, said that coercion never could accomplish the pacification of Ire-. land, and prescribed conciliation. The Duke of Wellington, on the other hand, talked of the Government as having, by the suc- cessful State prosecutions, following up his own military precau- tions to keep the peace, attained a situation of strength " ; and advised Parliament not to persecute nor even to seem to perse- cute the weak. These two positions are held to be incompatible, destroying each other like two negatives ; and also a flaw is de- tected in the Duke's, because the State prosecution was finally defeated by the decision of the Lords. The Duke of Wellington is a soldier, not a lawyer ; and he has more regard for material
results than technical refinements. The decision of the Lords let off the Repeal prisoners on the particular case as it happened to be conducted ; but it did not touch the sentence of the Judges on the substantial facts. The way to test it is, to suppose that there were not the errors in the proceedings on which the Peers rested their judgment, and to take what was actually done those errors excepted, in the light of a hypothetical case. If
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such a case came before the Ju or the Peers, it is evident that the offenders would be unani • ly condemned. In all the
tangible facts there is no real difference between such a case and that which actually came before the Lords—no such difference that a turbulent agitator could reckon upon it and take a more licentious view of the law from the judgment of the Lords than from the decision of the Judges. The trial equally elicited 'a declaration of the law, though technically inoperative in the par- ticular instance. As to the discrepancy, it is more apparent than real. The Duke of Wellington is a soldier, a matter-of-fact man, and he is speaking of a time and circumstances strictly limited: he is looking at the campaign within Ireland merely, survey- ing his own forces, his progress, and the ground he occupies; and he says, it is at once more generous and more politic not to pursue the foe. Sir Robert Peel is a civilian ; although not a man vvho resorts to first principles, he takes a more comprehensive and statesmanlike view than his colleague ; he surveys the pro- gress of affairs in Ireland with a further foresight as to time, and a wider sweep as to political relations. The Duke was speaking chiefly of the ruling power and its own position; Sir Robert Peel looks also at the condition of the subject Irish and at the effect of past influences on that condition : he too says that the law has been vindicated, and that you are therefore freer to do certain things ; he also recognizes the literal success of coercion so far as it goes ; but, pointing to the permanently.excited condition of the Irish under a long series of harsh misrule; he says, most justly, that you can never work a complete cure by such ap- pliances; that, having brought us to a certain stage, they- can do no more, being impotent as final remedies. He speaks of a different and later stage in the curative process, when more strin- gent medicines having subdued the acute fever, are succeeded by soothing restoratives. Sir Robert Peel, from his neglect or perhaps insensibility to the force of first principles, is apt enough to stray into inconsistencies both of word and conduct ; and sharply enough is he punished for it, both in discreditable remi- niscences and practical self-raised difficulty : but he is not to be blamed for inconsistency because a colleague, speaking of some different thing, uses different terms. A word, too, for the consistency of a section of a section--s member of Young England. The Commons have agreed to the second reading. of the Irish Colleges Bill,—opposed, among others, by Lord John Manners, who supported the Maynooth Bill,. and people are surprised at his " inconsistency." Now, it is one tenet of Young England that there ought to be a direct religious influence in everything: there is no direct provision for religious in- struction in the Colleges Bill ; the Maynooth Bill was expressly in- tended to provide a better and ampler supply of one form of reli- gion : Lord John supported the bill that supplied, opposes the bill that omits religion—and where is the inconsistency? We think that the Colleges Bill, which is meant for all creeds, rightly eschewed that which they all differ about ; and we are glad that thus far the House of Commons have sanctioned that view : but it is desirable to rest our reasoning as we go on real grounds, not on such figments as Lord John Manners 's inconsistency.
Mr. Ward's annual motion for inquiry into the special burdens on land has again been negatived. The agriculturists have again, with the help of Ministers, refused the inquiry which they pretend to brave as certain to prove their own case. They are determined that the fallacy shall be quite exploded before they will allow that it is worth investigating : so much more fearful are they of losing some money advantages than ambitious to show that they have a little sense.
Sir Henry Pottinger has, through Mr. Hume, triumphed over routine and Parliamentary etiquette, no less signally than he triumphed in China.; the House of Commons having set aside the absurd rule against recognizing civil as well as military ser- vice, and secured a pension for him, the amount to be named by the Crown. There must be something peculiar in the man who thus conquers the stubbornest obstacles, and startles even the Humes of Parliament into munificence.
